Supposedly the United States’s days of racial injustice and prejudice are long gone. Supposedly no one is distraught when someone Muslim or Arabic sits on an airplane next to them; no woman clutches her purse tighter when an African American male comes in to the elevator; no one demeans a Hispanic when he or she becomes their coworker. Supposedly everyone is colorblind. But what does it say about all of these thoughts when a man shoots and kills an African American child just because he felt threatened by his race and his attire.
On February 26, seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was walking down the street on his way home from a convenience store when he was shot and killed by self appointed neighborhood watchman: George Zimmerman. 28-year-old, Zimmerman has still not been convicted for his atrocious actions; Florida’s Stand Your Ground law protects him. The law enables all gun owners to use their weapon for self-defense in any public place—George Zimmerman states that Trayvon attacked him; therefore, he was forced to shoot. Before the murder Zimmerman called 911 and reported a subject with suspicious behavior, as he was chasing him: the 911 officer told him to stop his persecution. The police officers of Sanford, Florida have agree with Zimmerman; even though, they could have let a judge decide whether he did they right thing they are completely confident with their decision of keeping him free. However forensics have determined that Trayvon Martin was attacked from the back. The teenager’s parents are outraged by the state’s decision. Martin is also known to have been carrying only a bottle of iced tea and a bag of Skittles. So did Zimmerman feel threatened by the colorful candy or did he prejudge the boy because of his race?
Zimmerman’s prejudice towards African Americans caused him to take the life of the innocent.
“The teenager's race was enough to raise "suspicion" and trigger the neighborhood watchman - who possessed no training or authority, except for his racist prerogatives - to murder an unarmed and frightened teenager running for his life.” Trayvon Martin: The myth of US post-racialism
This quote states concisely how Zimmerman’s prejudice lead to injustice. George Zimmerman is a man full of prejudice; consequently, he felt threatened by an innocent African American boy walking down the street with candy in his hand. Mr. Zimmerman did not even look at what Trayvon Martin was carrying in his hands he only saw the color of his skin. This case shows how prejudice can become so big and so strong in people’s heads that it leads them to commit abhorrent crimes. Some people’s ignorance is leading to grief and suffering for the innocent citizens.
People in New York have rallied up and conducted a peaceful march named the “Million Hoodie March” for Trayvon Martin. The protesters are doing this to push for Zimmerman’s arrest, to protect the innocent boy who died. But is it their responsibility? I don’t know. What I do know is that it is their responsibility to stand up for what they believe in, to stand up for justice. Justice defends the innocent. Zimmerman was wrong when doing what he did and now people are trying to fix his mistake in the only way that is possible after Martin’s death. People are standing up for what they think is right and just and fair; that is their true responsibility.
It is human nature to fear the unknown. We shy away from what is different and taboo to us. When we meet new people we are not completely ourselves until we know that person well enough to judge that they are safe. But a lot of times people don’t make the time to get to know others before they judge them: they make a quick scan a use the things they have heard about people that look similar to make a first opinion. People fear what they do not master—they fear the odd uneasiness that comes with stepping out of your comfort zone; consequently, people create different prejudices in order to feel confident and secure; in order to think that they know what is going to happen; in order to stay in their comfort zones and feel like they master the world. Zimmerman did just that he lived by the stereotypes he had created in his head with the help of the rest of the world; he did not like the feeling of uncertainty you get when faced with the unknown; however, this does not justify his actions.
Death always makes you wonder what would have happened if one of the variables in the story changed, on of the most basic variables. What if he was a girl? Would women clutch their purse tighter if an African American woman came in to the elevator; would Zimmerman have shot Trayvon if he was seventeen-year-old girl walking down the street? And the answer is probably not, because gender stereotypes are the biggest of them all: they are the stereotypes we all have one way or another because it is what we have been taught since we where kids and our parents read us fairy tales. When people say the word rapist you don’t think of a woman you think of a man; when people say tough and strong a girl is not what pops in to mind. We all have this perfect guy and perfect girl in our heads. We all think of girls as soft and pretty and nice; we all think of guys as strong and rough and hard. Gender stereotypes influence how people act in a huge way. At the word criminal a man’s mug shot is what you see, so is you see a “scary looking” person walking down the street it is probably a man. If Trayvon Martin was a girl George Zimmerman would have probably stopped to look at the Skittles and iced tea in her hand and would have marked her as harmless; rather than, juvenile delinquent.
The United States boasts on its freedom of prejudice, on its tolerance for all races, and its lack of discrimination. But the truth is everyone has some sort of stereotype in their mind; it could be just one or it could be many but it is still there in the back of their mind when they meet a person that looks like he or she might fit into their stereotype.
